BARBRA STREISAND is a musical theater and actress powerhouse who made her directorial debut with Yentl (1983) which she fought to get made and opened the door for future directing and producing opportunities.

Much like Mary Pickford in the early days of the industry Streisand insists on shaping her own career. She was the Oscar presenter for the monumental moment when Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director.

She directed for television and the stage for over twenty years. Back in 1996 in a Los Angeles Times article she commented about the prospect for women directing in film and theatre, “It’s opened up a lot now, but it’s still not as good as it should be. It just doesn’t make sense statistically. When you go into a university and [you see a] 50-50 [gender ratio] in all your creative classes and then you get out into the profession and the ratio drops dramatically, you know there’s something wrong. … It doesn’t have to do with a person’s talent or abilities.”